One of the ways used by Real Estate agents to “close a sale” — bring a prospective buyer to a decision — is to ask “Can you see yourself living in and enjoying this lovely home?” They know that most people do not necessarily believe what is told to them by an agent, but they do believe what they say themselves. If you can see it and say it, you’ll more than likely buy it. How much more when experiencing what you’ve long wanted to experience?
Imagine all those Aussie Christians who ministered overseas in recent decades applying the things they learned there to Australia and the needs of our own people. They have seen the Lord do amazing healing miracles where they went and brought back with them the desire to see it happen here at home.
That surge has ebbed somewhat, and many Christians who did those things more than likely sit in churches wondering why the same fire hasn’t fallen here. Spiritual fires. Not our natural bushfires that consume everything in their paths with destructive fury, but spiritual fires, moving across the land with constructive revival! Miracles of healing that take place on streets in your town, or city, or neighbourhood.
What’s not to like about this vision? I’ve repeated for 30-plus years what the Lord told me: “The time is coming when it will be unusual for a person not to be a Christian.” This will be Australia anytime now. But that’s not all! Australians on fire, spiritually, spreading out across Asia and to the regions beyond, healing the sick through the power of God and preaching the Good News of the Kingdom, with astonishing results!
I’ll be expecting the fire to fall in our church while I’m preaching this coming Sunday morning — why would I not? Bushfires in Australia are different from elsewhere, in that most of our trees are eucalypts, and when the heat builds up the gas in the leaves is released ahead of the flames, and trees suddenly explode! It’s terrifying to behold! But the fire of the Holy Spirit blesses everyone it touches, and I believe that the leaping ahead of it from place to place will be a feature of this “anytime now!” Australian awakening.